Greece adds summer routes
- Reports say Greece is expanding air routes for summer 2026 even as early bookings fell 34%. - The story raises questions about whether added capacity will match uncertain demand this season. - Travel coverage flagged the route expansion amid wider worries about matching flights to traveller interest. (travelandtourworld.com)
Greece is lining up more flights for summer 2026 even as tourism groups and airlines report softer early bookings into the season. (aia.gr) (ekathimerini.com) Athens International Airport said in October 2025 that 2026 connections with India were in the pipeline with Aegean Airlines and IndiGo after a year of new long-haul additions including Charlotte and Los Angeles. Fraport Greece, which runs 14 regional airports, said those airports handled 37.1 million passengers in 2025, up 3% from 2024. (aia.gr) (fraport-greece.com) Air Serbia has already published one concrete summer 2026 addition: Belgrade-Santorini starts on April 30, 2026, with two weekly flights on Thursdays and Sundays. Athens airport’s live direct-flights page also shows the wider route map carriers are selling into Greece for the season. (airserbia.com) (aia.gr) The tension is on the demand side. Reuters reported on March 26, 2026 that Aegean Airlines had seen a double-digit drop in summer bookings from Israel and Gulf states since the Iran conflict began, while SETE secretary-general George Vernicos said pre-bookings had slowed and demand was weaker from northern Europe and the United States. (ekathimerini.com) Greek tourism is coming off a strong base, not a slump. INSETE said tourism receipts in 2024 reached 119% of 2019 levels, and Fraport’s regional airports posted another annual traffic increase in 2025, which helps explain why airports and airlines are still trying to add service. (insete.gr) (fraport-greece.com) Airports are also still paying to attract new flying. Fraport Greece renewed a two-year incentive program that pays airlines €10 per departing passenger on eligible new international winter routes at seven airports, with the first incentive year running from winter 2025-26 through summer 2026. (fraport-greece.com) That push fits Greece’s longer campaign to stretch tourism beyond the July-September peak. SETE says 54% of international tourist arrivals are still concentrated in those three months, leaving airlines and airports to bet on more seats before they know how much demand will hold. (sete.gr) The summer 2026 story, then, is not whether Greece can attract flights. The test is whether carriers can fill a bigger network at profitable fares after a spring in which bookings, cancellations and geopolitics all turned less predictable. (ekathimerini.com) (fraport-greece.com)
